


your love is so sweet, you are my everything

by onomatopia



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25544236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onomatopia/pseuds/onomatopia
Summary: A glimpse of the life in Kohoha General Hospital featuring Dr. Uchiha, the very irritible neurosurgeon professor; Dr. Haruno, a bubbly neurosurgeon resident; and Dr. Uzumaki, the boisterous and ball of sunshine OB-GYN doctor.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 39
Kudos: 150





	1. Rumour Has It

**Author's Note:**

> hospital playlist au bc wintergarden couple makes me feel a lot of things
> 
> fic title from one of the songs from Hospital Playlist OST 'Aloha'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone in KGH are convinced that Dr. Uzumaki and Dr. Haruno are dating. Dr. Uchiha seeks to disprove those ridiculous rumors.

Something is going on with Dr. Haruno and Dr. Uzumaki, Sasuke can sense it.

He always spots the two of them hanging out together more often than not though their field of medical expertise are not even remotely related. Dr. Haruno is a neurosurgeon resident, sharing the same field as him and yet she's always with Naruto who works in the OB-GYN department.

"Who are you texting?" Sasuke asks Naruto, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Sakura-chan," the dobe answers without looking up.

_Sakura-chan,_ huh? Sasuke scrunches his brows together, feeling irritation bubble up in his chest as he stares at Naruto laughing at something Sakura must've sent. He scowls, remembering how she greeted him earlier.

" _Good morning, Dr. Uchiha,"_ in a very formal tone accompanied by an awkward smile.

These days, Sasuke finds himself more and more hostile towards his best friend, which isn't totally out of character for him. In their several years of friendship, there isn't a day that Sasuke wasn't at all irritated at Naruto but whenever Naruto ever so slightly mentions the new pink haired resident, Sasuke always feels a strong urge to clock him in the jaw and throw his phone out the window.

What's more irritating is that Dr. Haruno seems to dislike him so much. Sasuke understands that he's been rude and demanding to her when she first got here but he already apologized to her and he thinks they're even getting along well in the past few months. They greet each other respectfully, he nods at her to acknowledge her presence and she smiles at him in return, they even stay up late together either working on something individually or discussing a particularly hard medical case.

But still, there's a huge difference with the way she treats Naruto to how she acts when he's around. They've known each other for months now, worked together more often than not and yet he's still Dr. Uchiha, while she's already on a first name basis with Naruto whom she's only known for a few weeks.

Not only that but it seems like she cannot stand his presence outside of work. She's always stiff and uncomfortable whenever he chooses to sit beside her during lunch in the cafeteria, excuses herself when he puts himself between her and Naruto whenever he catches them hanging out alone together, and she panics when riding the elevator alone with him.

_Snap_!

Sasuke comes back to his senses and immediately glares at Naruto who is now laughing at what is probably an ugly picture of him on his phone.

"Delete that right now, dobe," Sasuke grits his teeth.

He was about to lunge at Naruto but the idiot is quick to get on his feet and rush to the door. "Bye! I'm gonna sell this to your fan girls and make a fortune!"

Sasuke only rests elbows on the table and massages his temples.

Finally finishing typing his document, Kiba laughs and turns his swivel chair to face Sasuke. "I bet those two are dating."

"Who's dating?" Sasuke and Kiba both look at Shikamaru as he enters their office, taking off his white coat and heading to the sink near the door to wash his hands.

"Dr. Haruno and Dr. Uzumaki."

"Oh, the new resident." Shikamaru takes the seat in front of Sasuke as he scrolls through his phone. "Yeah, I heard the nurses gossiping about them. Says those two are always together by the garden."

"Naruto, that lucky bastard. Dr. Haruno is a pretty nice catch—ack! What the heck!" Kiba is suddenly interrupted in his speech when Sasuke slams his fists on the table, causing his colleagues to stare at him in bewilderment.

"Where are you going?" Shikamaru asks as Sasuke gets up from his seat and stalks to the door.

"Buying coffee," Sasuke grumbles as he slams the door and unconsciously makes his way to the garden. 

—

"Come closer," Naruto says, smiling knowingly at Sakura.

Sakura smiles back at him, feeling her beat faster and complies to his request. She closes the distance between them and places her hand over Naruto's. The scene would've been perfect if a love song instantaneously plays in the background.

"Ugh. Seriously? I basically had to sell my soul to the devil just to get Ino to assist you in your surgeries and this is what you give me?" Sakura complains and lets go of Naruto's hand that's holding the phone.

Naruto frowns, looking down at the picture of Sasuke in his phone, not only is the image blurry but Sasuke's face is also covered by plants. "Hey! You don't know how hard it is to get a picture of him! That bastard has a talent of avoiding cameras. You'd never see a decent picture of him, ever since we were young he always avoided getting his picture taken. He's like bigfoot or something."

Sakura glares at him and shoves him away from her. "Stop insulting Dr. Uchiha!"

Naruto rubs his shoulder and grumbles under his breath about pink haired residents and their super strengths. "Why do you like him so much anyway?"

Suddenly, Sakura's expression changed from being irritated to being dreamy as she looks up at the skies and clutches her hand to her chest. "He's so-"

"Handsome, yeah everyone knows." Naruto cuts her off and sips on his milk tea, deciding that he's actually not interested as to why anyone would even like his grouchy best friend.

"-Gentle," Sakura finishes off, lost in her own daydream and not paying attention to Naruto anymore.

Naruto immediately sputters his drink. "Gentle?!" He remembers all the interns who cried to him after being scolded and told off by Sasuke.

Sakura smiles. "I once panicked while we were performing a surgery almost made a mistake and instead of being annoyed at me, he helped calmed me down and guided me. And you should see how he is with kids and the patients' worried love ones."

Never in his life had Naruto imagined that the words 'Sasuke' and 'gentle' and 'kids' could be stringed in a single sentence. Naruto doesn't even dare think about how Sasuke interacts with children, it seems like something out of a horror movie.

"Are we- are we talking about the same Sasuke Uchiha here? Sasuke Uchiha, the man I've known since diapers, the infamous Ice King in this hospital?"

Sakura nods vigorously. "Yeah, what's up with that? Aside from our rough start, I have never once witnessed him being anything but sweet and thoughtful-"

"Sweet? Thoughtful? Are you sure the one you're interacting to is the real Sasuke?" Naruto remembers how he got drunk out of his mind once and how Sasuke just left him passed out by the foyer of their apartment. He even clanged the pots and pans in the morning to wake him up.

"He gives me coffee every morning. He even knows how I like my coffee after I hang out with him by the coffee shop that one time. Dr. Uchiha is so kind."

"Kind?" Naruto's eyes almost bulges out of their sockets at her outrageous words. He swears he doesn't know anyone who's stingier than that bastard, owe him even just a dime and Sasuke never forgets. Naruto never even borrowed anything from Sasuke anymore after Sasuke sent him a list of all the ramen he paid for throughout their college years the moment Naruto received his first pay.

"Yes. I like him so much my heart bursts every time I see him and I can't even eat properly whenever he's near," Sakura continues, looking lovestruck.

"If you like him so much then just tell him!"

"What! No! I can't!"

"Hey, maybe he likes you too, you know. Based on what you said, I have never once witnessed him treating anyone the same way he treats you. Besides what's the worst thing that could happen?"

"He could hear me!" Sakura panics.

Naruto laughs at her. "You can't tell him but you can tell me?"

"Well yeah. I'm scared that he'd laugh at me and think I'm delusional for even wanting to be with him, you know. We just established a nice professional environment between us and I don't want to mess that up," Sakura says, looking at down at her feet and playing with her hands.

Naruto pats her on the shoulders to comfort her. "Hey, I don't think—"

"Naruto, your resident is looking for you. Says there's an emergency with your patient."

Both Naruto and Sakura look up at Sasuke who entered the garden, looking like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Sakura immediately stands up straight and bows to Sasuke as she greets him formally. "Good afternoon, Dr. Uchiha," she says then immediately goes back inside the hospital, the tips of her ears going red.

Naruto, on the other hand, narrows his eyes at Sasuke. He knows there's no emergency or else his pager would've gone off.

"Are you dating her?" Sasuke asks straightforwardly, his face unreadable.

Naruto scoffs, amused at the sudden turn of events. He raises a brow at Sasuke. "Since when did my love life start being your business?"

Sasuke scowls. "It's not but Dr. Haruno is."

Naruto's jaw drops at the same time Sasuke's face turn red, both shocked at what the latter has just said.

Sasuke gives his fiercest glare at Naruto who's now smiling teasingly at him. He fakes a cough and puts his hands in his pocket. "She's under my wing and I'd be doing a terrible job looking out for her if I let her get together with a moron like you."

"Of course."

"Shut the fuck up."

Naruto raises both his arms and starts laughing. "I did not even say anything."

Sasuke, however, remains standing in front of Naruto and continues to glare at him. Naruto could only imagine how many scenarios of him getting beaten up is running through Sasuke's mind right now so he decides to pacify his poor friend. "Relax, bastard. We're not dating. Sakura-chan and I are just friends."

Sasuke's face seems to relax and decides to sit next to Naruto and takes a sip from his forgotten milk tea. "Hn."

"What do you think of Sakura?" Naruto asks, now serious.

Sasuke is silent for a moment, looking straight ahead and continuing to sip on Naruto's drink. Then- "She's dexterous."

Naruto's brows scrunches together in confusion. "What?"

"She's dexterous, an advantage as a surgeon. She's focused and reliable. She's good at assessments and handling patients. She's smart and honest. She will be a great doctor. Maybe even better than I am."

Naruto could only stare at Sasuke in disbelief. This may be the first time he said more than three sentences in a row and it's about a woman of all things. He even used the word dexterous to describe Sakura, it's basically a love confession.

He smiles to himself, Sasuke can be clueless when it comes to things like dating and liking someone but he knows that Sasuke and Sakura will be good together and deserve each other. So all he can do is wait and watch in the sidelines as his friends' love story unfold.


	2. Wrong Send

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura contemplates a change of career after sending an embarrassing message to Dr. Uchiha.

Sakura slumps in the nearest seat she could find as soon she's finished with her rounds and immediately smiles at the new message that popped up on her phone. She glances at the time and sees that it's six in the morning.

From: Dr. Uchiha <3

Dr. Haruno, the surgery for the IVH patient has been moved at 8 the morning. Kindly inform me if you have a prior schedule and won't be able to assist me.

To: Dr. Uchiha <3

From: Sakura

Good morning, Dr. Uchiha. I don't have any prior commitments in the morning. I'll be able to assist you later.

After replying to Sasuke, she then opens her conversation with Naruto.

From: Sakura

good morning dr. uzumaki. im exhausted pls send me more dr. uchiha pics to get me through the day

_Delivered_

Sakura is about to put her phone down and take a quick nap when she noticed something very alarming in her phone. Heart racing and head pounding, she rubs her eyes to confirm what she just saw or rather what she just did.

" _Oh my god_ ," she whispers, face burning with mortification.

She just sent her message to Dr. Uchiha.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

Sakura wants to cry. She wants the ground to open up and swallow her whole now.

She knocks her fist against her head. "Fuck, what do I do?"

It's not too late, should she just feign illness and not show up for the surgery later? Maybe she could change her chosen field of medical expertise, transfer to a new department that's far away from neurosurgery. She could ask the chief of medicine, Dr. Tsunade herself, to be assigned under a new instructor. Or maybe she should just pack up and leave Konoha altogether, transfer to a far away country, change her name, and sell apples or something.

Being a doctor was too exhausting anyway, she should just quit and become an actress and live a life of luxury instead of eating instant ramen every night and only getting three hours of sleep.

Too busy thinking of all the possible excuses to not show up in surgery today and deep in her own daydream about showing up at the Met gala and receiving her third Oscar award, Sakura didn't notice that it was already time for surgery.

By the time she's inside the operating room, Sakura has already resolved to act like an adult about it. She'd just put all the blame to Ino.

She rehearses her apology speech in her head once more. "Dr. Uchiha, I'm very sorry for the message I sent you earlier. It's all Ino's fault. She pulled a prank on me and actually sent it to you. It won't happen again, I swear." Sakura cringes, mentally apologizing to Ino who had nothing to do with her own foolishness.

"Dr. Haruno."

Sakura almost squeaks upon hearing the deep baritone voice that she knew all too well. She closes her eyes, turns around, and prepares for the onslaught.

"Has the patient already been disinfected?" Sasuke asks.

Sakura blinks and nods slowly. "Yes, Dr. Uchiha."

Sasuke nods back, waiting for the nurse to finish tying up his surgical gown. "Let's get to work then."

Sakura inwardly sighs in relief. Of course, Dr. Uchiha wouldn't reprimand her at work. She's sure that he gets tons of messages like that that he's used to it already. Maybe he decided to just ignore her slip up and forget about the embarassing incident altogether.

The surgery had been long and tricky that by the time they're finished Sakura forgot about her text message already. The only things currently on her mind are her bunk bed and instant noodles that awaits for her in her room.

"Sakura."

Sakura startles and turns to find Dr. Uchiha standing beside her in the elevator. She'd been too exhausted that she didn't notice they were alone together and that he even addressed her by her first name.

"Sasuke- I mean, Dr. Uchiha," Sakura says, looking startled and face turning red as she remembers what she did in the morning.

Sasuke's lips quirked up, amusement dancing in his eyes as he looked at her.

Sakura purses her lips. Great, she must look stupid to him right now. Really, how many times does she have to embarrass herself in front of him?

"Your phone beeped a few times," Sasuke says.

Sakura immediately pats her front pocket and fishes for her phone, already predicting texts from her fellow residents about new patients to attend to.

But she almost drops her phone the moment she opened her inbox, finding a message that she never would've expected in a million years.

She just received a selfie.

From Dr. Uchiha or dare she say it, _Sasuke_. _Sasuke_ who is standing next to her right now. _Sasuke_ whom she's riding the elevator alone with right now. Her heart starts to beat fast and all exhaustion from the nine-hour surgery just went out the window.

Sakura turns to Sasuke, eyes wide as she opens and closes her mouth like a fish, seemingly lost for words while he only stands still next to her with a blank expression.

"I- uh-"

Before Sakura could say something, however, the elevator door suddenly opens and Sasuke is already stepping out.

Sakura is left confused and dumbfounded when he stops in his tracks and turns around to face her, a smirk already plastered in his face. "Just something to help get you through the day. Get some rest, Sakura."

And the elevator door already closes.


	3. Elevator Mishaps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Sakura recalls her first meeting with Dr. Uchiha, she finds reason to believe that maybe the elevator is cursed seeing as how many times it bore witness to one too many embarassing moments in her life.

**NINE MONTHS AGO**

Sakura fidgets as she steps inside the elevator, constantly straightening her uniform and arranging her already immaculate hair. This is her first day as a third year resident in Konoha General Hospital and she is nervous as hell.

She tries to reason with herself that there's no reason to be. She's an outstanding doctor, she was the class valedictorian in medicine school, and she had exceptional marks from the previous hospital she worked at. She knows she would do well here in Konoha, despite being new. Still, being the perfectionist that she is, she can't help but worry that she might do something embarassing or even worse, make mistakes in the OR.

Just as the elevator door closes, however, a hand stops the doors and Sakura is greeted by the sight of one of the most handsome men she's ever seen. With his skin as pale as snow, his dark ebony locks that somehow works despite its messy state, his perfect brows knitted together, his tall nose and aristocratic face, he looks like one of those male leads in Korean dramas she's been obsessing about. Tall, perfect, no blemishes, and just a pretty sight to look at.

She's too busy staring at the handsome stranger that she almost didn't notice he was talking to her.

Sakura fakes a cough and smiles politely at him. "I'm sorry, can you repeat that?"

The man stops scrolling through his phone to give her a deadpan stare. "10th floor."

"Oh," Sakura complies. Her sight gets caught by the man's ID which made her smile even wider. "Wow, you're a neurosurgeon resident, too? We'll be working in the same department, then. I'm Haruno Sakura, by the way," she says and extends her hands to him.

The man only furrows his brows as he accepts her handshake.

Much as she wants to stay quiet throughout the whole ride, her nervousness got the better of her and before she knows it, words are coming out nonstop from her mouth.

"This is my first day here in KGH, and it's a new environment for me. And I'm really nervous, I heard the newly appointed neurosurgery professor is a terror one. Some say he's the reason why there are low numbers of neurosurgeon residents in this hospital this year, because he eats his students alive. I bet he's one of those old and grumpy professors who believe that being a douchebag to your students is the way to go," Sakura shudders.

The man opens his mouth to say something but was cut off once again by Sakura's ramblings.

"God, don't you just hate strict professors? Like, why be mean and hateful when you can just try and understand your students? Studies say positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement and- oh, we're here!" Sakura steps out.

As Sakura is about to head toward the neurosurgery office, she turns to the man who's heading in a different direction. "Uhm, aren't you coming with me?"

The man turns to her and points to his attire. "I'm just gonna change."

Sakura nods. "Alright, see you!"

Instead of replying, the man only gives her an amused stare that confuses Sakura.

She enters the neurosurgery office and finds a woman with red hair snoring loudly on her unkempt desk, her glasses askew and drool dribbling down her chin. She has to clear her throat a few times before the woman wakes up and sits up straight.

The woman furrows her brows at her for a moment before a look of acknowledgement crosses her face. She arranges herself and stands up to shake hands with Sakura. She went from confused to excited in just a few seconds. "Hi! You're the new resident, right?"

"Yes, nice to meet you. There's also someone with me-" Sakura isn't able to finish her sentence as the woman envelops her in a warm hug.

"I'm sorry! That was very unprofessional of me!" The woman says and she lets go. "It's just before you transferred here, I was the only neurosurgeon resident here. You can only imagine the amount of work I've been doing in the past four years. I can't even remember the last time I slept. Now that you're here, I finally have someone to divide the work with," she rambles on excitedly. "I'm Karin Uzumaki, by the way, the Chief Resident."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Sakura Haruno. Third year resident. But isn't there someone else besides me?"

Karin scrunches her brows. "Uhm, I don't think so. Dr. Uchiha only briefed me about one resident to give an orientation."

"I thought-"

"Dr. Uzumaki, I need the patient chart for Mr. Tan. And also have you checked with the anaesthesiologist and the OR for the surgery later?" a man's voice says as he enters the office.

Sakura turns around to greet him and her eyes almost bulges out of their sockets at the sight of the man in the elevator earlier.

The man, however, remains unbothered with his eyes still glued to the papers he's holding.

It finally dawns on Sakura just who this man is and how much she messed up, all the things that she said to him in the elevator flashes back to her mind in a loop.

She just called her new professor old, grumpy, douchebag, and other disrespectful remarks.

"Yes. Everything is already set, Dr. Uchiha," Karin answers and she then gestures to Sakura who remains standing still like a statue. "This is Dr. Haruno, by the way."

At that, Dr. Uchiha lifts his head to meet her eyes. His face remains blank as he stares back at her but there's a knowing glint in his eyes that tells her he's making fun of her. "Aa. I look forward to working with you, Dr. Haruno."

Sakura gulps down her nervousness. Is it too late for her to transfer to yet another hospital?


	4. Null Hypothesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just when Sakura thinks she's got a good grasp of Dr. Uchiha's personality, he does a complete 180 and proves her wrong. It's seems to be his habit lately, proving her wrong. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't know how medicine works im not an expert and im just winging it so forgive me for any inaccuracies. just borrowed all the medical jargon from hospital playlist 
> 
> anyway this chapter is another flashback that i should've placed in the first two chaps but bc i haven't thought this through, here it is lol

**SEVEN MONTHS AGO**

Sakura is ready to die. Or rather ready to kill. She's been on call for 36 hours without even a wink of sleep and yet Dr. Uchiha seems to find scolding her and giving her more work a very pleasant hobby.

  
"Dr. Haruno, it's your job as a junior resident to supervise the interns. It's a good thing the patient's family didn't make a big deal out of this but this will still be reported to the Chief of Medicine," Dr. Uchiha tells her in a disapproving voice.

  
Meanwhile, Sakura only bows her head as she profusely apologizes to Dr. Uchiha while mentally cursing him at the same time. 

"I'm sorry, Dr. Uchiha. It won't happen again," is the only thing Sakura says even though she is raging inside. It's the new intern, Haruki, who made the mistake and somehow everything still points back to her. How is that fair? 

Haruki is already graduating from medicine school so Sakura assumed he's smart enough to know that shaving the patient's hair means only shaving a part of his head that will undergo surgery and not his entire head, thus resulting to the patient being bald.

Sakura remembers that one time he set the microwave on fire. Okay, maybe it is her fault for assuming otherwise.

"And I'd be needing a summary of relevant papers and surgical cases. You can hand it to me tomorrow morning," he says before stalking off.

Sakura can only gape at him as she's left standing alone in the middle, going over her arsenal of curses to find one that could promptly describe her troublesome professor.

* * *

"Don't worry, Mrs. Arakawa, your son will be in good hands. We will make sure he'll come out of the OR okay," Sakura assures the crying mother. "It's a simple surgery. He'll be fine."

  
Mrs. Arakawa only nods and continues to sniffle, still holding on to Sakura's hand tightly.

The moment is broken, however, by the arrival of a certain villain. If Dr. Uchiha had a sixth sense for when Sakura makes mistakes, Sakura has a Grouch Alarm in which she shivers and feels a cold seeping into her bones alerting her of the presence of Dr. Uchiha.

"Dr. Haruno," says a cold voice behind her and Sakura represses the urge to sigh loudly.

"Dr. Uchiha." She fakes a smile.

"You shouldn't be talking to a patient like that," he says when they were out of earshot. He then frowns at her.

Sakura bows her head, feeling sheepish for being reprimanded once again. A voice in her head tells her to just take it all in stride but another voice, a rather stubborn voice, tells her to defend herself atleast once. The latter voice wins.

She straightens up and bites her bottom lip."But this is a relatively easy case, a pretty high survival rate, and you've done this a lot of times so I thought that the patient would be okay."

"What if he gets brain damage from embolism?"

Sakura opens her mouth to protest but was again cut off by Dr. Uchiha.

"What if there's a CSF leak?" he asks again. "Just because I've done it million timess doesn't mean there isn't a chance I won't fail. Keep it together, Dr. Haruno. If you really empathize with the patient's mother, you would be honest with her and won't feed her false hopes."

Sakura only purses her lips, feeling ashamed for letting herself get swayed by her feelings once more. Dr. Uchiha is right, as always. "I apologize, Dr. Uchiha."

* * *

"Stop. You should insert the hemovac first," Dr. Uchiha's voice rings throughout the room and Sakura prevents herself from cringing. 

They have just performed yet another surgery and Dr. Uchiha assigns her to close up the the patient. Sakura nods and does what she's told.

"Don't put too much pressure. Be gentle with your grip," Dr. Uchiha quips once more.

"Yes, Dr. Uchiha," is Sakura's monotonous answer.

Finally, Dr. Uchiha seems content with her handiwork and she continues finishing up the surgery.

She's almost done with her work and is close to rejoicing for not making any more mistakes when her stomach suddenly rumbles out loud in the silent OR. 

She groans inwardly. Why must she always embarrass herself in front of Dr. Uchiha?

* * *

Sakura yawns as stretches her arms, her joints popping as she did so. Without having to look in the mirror, she already knows there are dark circles underneath her eyes as a result of pulling yet another all-nighter. She arranges her table and throws out all her trash that mostly consists of the packaging of her choco pie.

She then gathers all her papers together and arranges them into a neat stack, frowning when she hears a knock at the door. 

"Come in," Sakura says, still sorting out her papers absentmindedly.

"Dr. Haruno," a female voice says.

Sakura puts down her papers and turns around, immediately smiling at the sight of her colleague and friend.

Head poking at the door is Shizune, the head nurse, smiling at her as she holds up a paperbag from what Sakura assumed is from a nearby restaurant she'd been dying to go to.

Sakura frowns and fakes a cry, "Shizune-san!" she whines.

"Come, let's eat! Then you can vent to me afterwards," she says.

Sakura was sold the moment she saw the Ichiraku logo on Shizune's paperbag.

"I swear, it's like he has an alarm that goes off even when I so much as breathe. He's always scolding me, and when he's not mad at me, he's assigning me a shit ton of case studies to review. Ugh, I swear this is the last time I'm putting up with him," Sakura rambles on so fast Shizune felt like she's rapping.

Shizune merely smiles at Sakura. This is what Sakura has been ranting to her for weeks now ever since they became friends; about how Dr. Uchiha is the bane of her existence and how much she wants to give up being a doctor and take up modeling instead. But instead of following through on her promises, she just shows up for work with a renewed energy the next day.

"Cheer up, Sakura-san! You're already in your third year, right? You made it the past medical school and the past two years, you can make it one more day! Dr. Uchiha is just a grumpy creature, I doubt he hates you as you think he does."

Sakura swallows her tempura, mulling over her words. "But Shizune-san, this is different. Sure, he scolds Karin-san but she doesn't get reprimanded as much as I do. It's like he's got a personal vendetta against me or something." 

"Sakura-san, I've been around here since Dr. Uchiha was a resident himself. I know that despite his cold facade, he really means well. He cares for his colleagues and subordinates in his own way."

Sakura is about to lament how that's not really the case when Shizune's next words almost tipped her out of her seat.

"After all, he did get us this food and made me promise to make sure you eat well."

* * *

"One latte with three shots of espresso, please," Sakura says to the barista, her eyes glued to her phone the whole time that she didn't notice the person standing behind her.

"And an additional cup of brewed coffee."

Sakura startles at the sound of the familiar voice, almost dropping her phone as she turns around to face Dr. Uchiha.

Dr. Uchiha's expression only remains impassive as he hands her his card. "You can pay with this." He then gestures to the corner part of the place where Sakura's things are placed. "That's where you're seated, right?"

Sakura only gapes at him.

He doesn't even wait for Sakura's response as he heads to the table and sits himself comfortably, scrolling through his phone like he did not just do something nice for Sakura which is unusual for him at all.

Feeling confused and wrong footed, Sakura still proceeds paying for the drinks and bringing them back to her table all the while eyeing Dr. Uchiha warily. She still haven't thanked him for the food he bought her the other day because haven't found the time.

Dr. Uchiha only crosses his legs as he takes his coffee from the tray, now focused on his phone and not at all bothered by Sakura's bewildered stares. He just continues to sit there, looking handsome and rugged, sipping on his coffee with grace like he's shooting a commercial. Typical.

He gestures to the books lying around the table. "You're studying for the EVD procedure tomorrow?"

Sakura bites back a sarcastic retort. It was him who assigned her as the lead surgeon for tomorrow's surgery, of course she's studying and reviewing to make sure she won't embarrass herself enough tomorrow.

She nods at him and deciding she's tired as hell to even bother being nice, she just ignores him and continues reading her textbook.

"Dr. Haruno."

Sakura closes her eyes and counts to five before looking up, readying herself for another round of earful lectures.

"I'm sure you will do well tomorrow."

Sakura couldn't believe her ears. She opens her eyes and looks up at Dr. Uchiha who's still focused on his phone.

"What?"

Dr. Uchiha finally puts his phone down and stares her in the eyes so intensely it had her heart heart beating so fast.

During her few weeks of stay here and after all the stress he's given her, Sakura has forgotten that Dr. Uchiha is one attractive man. It is unfair, really, no one should be able to look that handsome and fresh after a 12-hour surgery and doing rounds all day.

"You've assisted in a lot of surgeries to know what to do. You're smart and capable enough. Don't worry too much."

Sakura feels a warm hand holding her heart at Dr. Uchiha's words. Before she could reply, however, Dr. Uchiha is quick to get to his feet and leave her with a nod.

Just when Sakura thinks she's got a good grasp of Dr. Uchiha's personality, he does a complete 180 and proves her wrong. It's seems to be his habit lately, proving her wrong. 

* * *

"I'm sorry, Dr. Uchiha. I don't think I can do this. I might make a mistake and end up endangering the patient's life," Sakura says as she stands in front of the patient, on the verge of tears and her whole body shaking.

Dr. Uchiha only ignores her as he moves to position himself beside her. "Let's start."

Biting her bottom lip, Sakura musters up all her courage and tries to stop herself from trembling. 

"You won't be endangering the patient's life, Dr. Haruno. I will be guiding you the whole time. Just think of this like most of the surgeries you've assisted me with and focus."

And with that, Sakura begins.

As nerve wracking as the surgery is, Dr. Uchiha is right. Once she gets the hang of it, it's pretty easy from then on. She made quite a few mistakes here and there but Dr. Uchiha is always quick to help and correct her. And before she knows it, she's already done.

"Dr. Haruno, report to my office before you leave later," Dr. Uchiha says as he removes his surgical gown and tosses it in the trash.

Sakura feels dread all over body but this time, she cannot bring herself to be resentful. It must be because of her use of the curette or not being fast enough to stop the heavy bleeding. She hangs her head back in shame.

* * *

"You did well."

Sakura blinks. She even pinches her cheeks to make sure she's not dreaming or hallucinating, causing Dr. Uchiha to chuckle a little. He gestures to the seat by the coffee table.

Confirming that what she's hearing is real, Sakura sits on the sofa and furrows her brows in confusion. "But I did so many mistakes," she says in a small voice.

"It's your first time as lead surgeon, it is to be expected. Don't beat yourself up over it. No one does it perfectly on their first try."

"I heard from gossips that you did well the first try," Sakura says before she could stop herself.

Dr. Uchiha furrows his brows and nods. "Well, that's because it's me."

Sakura gapes at him. "Are you-Did you just boast at me?"

She wants to scowl upon seeing the grin on his face but she smiles at him instead. "Well, thank you, Dr. Uchiha. I thought you called me here just to scold me once again, to be honest."

He frowns at her. "Am I really that bad as Shizune says I am? Do I really scold you everytime?"

Sakura's eyes widen at the mention of her friend. "What? Did Shizune tell on me for badmouthing you all the time?"

That traitor!

Dr. Uchiha mimics her expression. "She never said anything about you. She just yelled at me for acting like a prick to my juniors."

Sakura instantly puts her hands in front of her and gestures wildly around. "I didn't-That-I never badmouthed you. I would never-you're like, the greatest professor-" 

She keeps stumbling through her lies until she hears a quiet chuckle from him again that made her shut her mouth.

"It's fine. I understand that I've been unbearable to you lately. I apologize if I'd been scolding you too much. It's just-" he stops and takes a deep breath before continuing.

"You're a brilliant doctor, Dr. Haruno, that's why I've been putting too much pressure on you because I know you can handle them. But that's not an excuse to overwork you and I admit that I may have gone overboard."

The room is silent for a while as Dr. Uchiha trails off and stares at the screen of his computer before he faces her again. "I guess I've been nagging you a lot because wanted to keep you on your toes. This job is difficult but once you get used to it, it can get repetitive and monotonous. It's good to have confidence in your skills and capacity but you shouldn't be complacent enough because a person's life depends on you."

Sakura bows her head. "No need to apologize to me, Dr. Uchiha. You were only doing your job looking out for me. I know you mean well. Maybe I antagonized you in my head and made you out as the bad guy just to find someone to blame my stress on. I should be the one who's sorry."

"Now we're both needlessly apologizing." He shakes his head then takes out something from the paper bag on his table. Those choco pie that Sakura always buys at the vending machine. He then hands it to Sakura without looking at her. "Go get your well deserved rest. You did a great job today."

Sakura gives him a wide smile and takes the muffins from him, her heart light from the conversation she just had with him. "You should stop it with all the praises, Dr. Uchiha. It might get to my head," she chides.

"Well, some wise young philosopher once told that positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforecement."

"Sounds like an awesome person," Sakura retorts as she heads to the door and bows at Dr. Uchiha once more. "Thank you and have a good evening, Dr. Uchiha."

She clutches the choco pie to her chest and sighs in contentment. She remembers her promise to herself after three days of working with him that she would never make the mistake of liking him at all like she did the first time she saw him. 

It seems he has proven her wrong once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is unedited so sorry for any mistakes and grammatical errors!! thank you all for reading!


	5. Placebo Effect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The placebo effect is defined as a phenomenon in which some people experience a benefit after the administration of an inactive substance or sham treatment."

Dr. Uchiha is mad at her. Or so Sakura thinks as she recalls her desk that's pointedly devoid of the morning coffee she'd become used to seeing.

Sakura frowns, looking back to the past few days and trying to recall if she did or said something that may have upset Sasuke, only to come up with none.

It's not as though he started treating her horribly or is overworking her once again, he's always been professional. Too professional, in fact, that Sakura could not stand it. Since the past few days, he's been rather distant and scaling back on being friendly with her. He even went back to calling her Dr. Haruno once again.

He also started assigning a very tired Karin to assist every one of his surgeries, leaving Sakura under the care of Dr. Hatake Kakashi, much to her dismay. All Dr. Kakashi does is read his book of sins, sleep, and make nihilistic remarks every now and then about how life is meaningless. She doesn't know why he's even the chief surgeon in this hospital.

Ever since that embarrassing message she sent Sasuke, Sakura thinks they've been getting along quite well. If she may be so bold, she can even claim that they developed some sort of friendship over the past few weeks.

She's learned to relax around him; she already did so many embarassing things in his presence about it that she cannot find it in herself to care anymore, and Sasuke has taken the habit of teasing her often. They still maintain their professional relationship during work hours but when they hang out during down time, it feels as though they've known each other for years with how much comfortable they are with each other.

Eating lunch together with Naruto is pretty much a common occurence to them now. Being a resident, Sakura has become used to eating at ungodly hours and if it weren't for Sasuke's constant nagging and deadly glares, she wouldn't have bothered eating at all.

Sakura is about to raise her hand and call out to Sasuke who just entered the cafeteria holding his tray of food but immediately drops it when he takes a sharp turn and sits with Dr Hyuuga.

"Hyuuga," she hears Sasuke say.

Dr. Hyuuga stops in the middle of arranging his food on the table in an orderly fashion to look at Sasuke. "Uchiha," he greets in return.

She frowns as she looks at their table. He even picked the table with Dr. Neji Hyuuga, one of the most passive aggressive individual she's come across. She's pretty sure they hate each other and the fact that Sasuke would choose to sit with the person he dislikes than share a table with her pretty much confirms her suspicions.

"Is Dr. Uchiha mad at me?" Sakura asks Naruto who is having the time of his life slurping his fifth order of ramen.

Sakura wonders where all the ramen he consumes goes to and just chalks it up to the possibility of Naruto having a black hole in his stomach.

Naruto stops to swallow down his food before giving Sakura a mischievous grin.

He leans his head toward her and gestures her to do the same. "It's all part of the plan, Sakura-chan."

"What plan?"

At that question, Naruto laughs maniacally causing a few heads to turn in their direction.

"It's a secret. But you'll have to treat me to a lot of ramen after this."

* * *

It had started a week ago.

"To remove the tumor, TSA would be the best approach," Sasuke announces to the conference room as he points to the slides with his pen.

"You won't take the pterional approach?" asks Dr. Hyuuga. 

"It would be dangerous and result to a lot of bleeding, leading to brain injury," Sasuke answers.

Sitting quietly beside Sasuke and happily munching choco pie, Sakura turns to Haruki who is standing behind her. "TSA is transsphenoidal approach," she tells him.

The intern nods and immediately writes down his observations on his phone.

"The tumor is deeply expanded into the suprasellar region. I think it's better to remove it completely," Dr. Hyuuga interjects. "With TSA, the patient would still have to undergo radiation therapy."

"If I take the pterional approach, his optic nerve or pituitary stalk might be damaged," Sasuke counteracts. 

They have an intense stare down that might have lasted for hours if Karin didn't fake a cough as she turns to Kakashi. "What do you think, Dr. Hatake?"

"Uhuh," Kakashi hums, his focused solely on the medical book he's reading.

Without saying a word, Shizune forcefully takes the book he's holding only to reveal one of those erotic novels he's always reading. She glares at him as she takes the novel out of his hands as well and stalks back to her chair.

Kakashi gives everyone in the conference room a sheepish smile as he rubs the back of his head awkwardly. 

"Well?" Dr. Hyuuga asks, raising a brow at him.

"I think..." Kakashi leans back in his chair and rubs his chin as though he is in deep thought. "Fully removing the tumor is good but we need to take in the patient's quality of life. Dr. Uchiha is right, we should go with TSA."

"I have a lot of surgeries lined up this week. It's better if Dr. Uchiha takes this one. It's his idea after all," Neji says, looking at Sasuke haughtily as he gathers his tablet from the table and stands up to leave the room.

Kakashi shakes his head, gaze following Neji's retreating back. "Okay. It is decided then. Dr. Uchiha will be the lead surgeon. You may choose whomever of these residents to assist you."

Sasuke nods and reviews the file Shizune submitted to them earlier. He then looks at Sakura who is staring back at him with a hopeful expression on her face.

Clearing his throat, he looks away from her and turns his gaze to Karin. "Dr. Uzumaki will assist me," he says, ignoring the betrayed expression on Sakura's face.

* * *

7 days ago

"Dr. Uchiha!"

Sasuke turns around to find Sakura walking towards him, smiling brightly with her eyes twinkling and a skip in every step she takes as though seeing him is the best thing on earth. And suddenly, he feels his face heat up along with the feeling of something funny in his stomach. 

He's been feeling these unpleasant symptoms around Sakura for quite a while now and he suspects she may have been carrying an infectious disease all along.

"Sakura." Sasuke struggles to keep himself from slapping his face for calling her by her name so casually once again. He feels awkward which is just unlike him as he's the one with the upper hand, always catching her in her most embarrassing moments and never living it down for her. 

Now, it seems the situation has been reversed wherein she's the one being casual to him and he's the one losing composure.

"I'm about to head out, would you like to grab a bite with me?" she asks.

They had never eaten out together outside of work and the thought had his heart racing and his palms clamming up. Sasuke swallows, feeling blinded by the smile she directs at him again.

Something is definitely wrong with him.

And because he's Sasuke, he does the stupid thing and chickens out.

"Uh. Sorry. I have an appointment tonight. Maybe some other time," he hurriedly says. He flashes her an apologetic smile then walks away before he could see the disappointed look on her face.

* * *

5 Days Ago

"Sakura," Sasuke calls out in surprise when he finds her standing outside the hospital entrance.

"Dr- Sasuke," Sakura replies when she looks up from her phone and gives him that damned smile again.

_Do it. Ask her out to dinner. Stop chickening out. Do it._

"You're going home early," he says instead. 

Sakura widens her eyes, and shakes her head defensively. "Don't worry. I finished all my rounds and the case studies you asked me to review. I have my pager turned on–"

Sasuke chuckles. Must she always act like he is out to get her every time? "Calm down, Sakura. I didn't say anything. You're allowed to get your well deserved rest after all your hard work this week."

Sakura heaves a relieved sigh. "Oh. Sorry for overreacting. I have plans tonight and the thought of cancelling them makes me feel bad."

That's when Sasuke noticed that she is wearing nice clothes today, and even has her hair done. He is about to ask her when a sleek black car stops in front of them.

"Oh. My ride is here," Sakura says. She turns to Sasuke once more. "Well, see you tomorrow, Sasuke." She waves awkwardly before getting inside the car.

As the car door opens, Sasuke gets a glimpse of a dark haired man in the driver's seat holding a bouquet of flowers that he hands to Sakura.

The car door closes and soon drives away, leaving Sasuke standing alone outside the hospital with a frown on his face.

* * *

3 Days Ago

"Where's Shino?" Naruto asks as he gobbles down his food.

Sasuke glares at him and slaps Naruto's hand away from the dumplings when he's about to take one more. "We're only allowed to have five each. You've had your share already."

Naruto rolls his eyes and holds up hands. "Alright, you bastard. Are all rich people this stingy?"

"Shino's in the PICU, taking care of his patient," Shikamaru answers, adding more rice to his plate.

"Oh right, he's dealing with that particular hard case right now."

They are in his office, eating their lunch peacefully when an excited Kiba Inuzuka barges in.

"Guys! I have some tea to spill!"

Sasuke only scrunches his brows and turns to Naruto to ask what the the hell Kiba is talking about.

"It means he has some gossip to share. He spends way too much time on his stan twitter account and I spend way too much time hanging out with him," Shikamaru sighs.

Naruto laughs. "Kiba has a stan twitter account? For what?"

"For Blackpink, of course," Kiba scoffs and rolls his eyes. "But that's not important right now! Dr. Haruno is dating some big shot CEO!" he blurts out as he takes off his coat and sits beside Sasuke. "What do you know, even our residents have a more active social life than us."

Sasuke's ears perk up at the mention of her name and turns to Kiba with an incredulous look.

"What? Really?" Naruto asks in an exagerrated tone and clasps his hands against his chest dramatically.

"Yeah, well. I saw her going out of a luxurious car with a guy wearing a suit. He's quite handsome, if I may say so myself," Kiba reports.

Sasuke tightens his grip on his plastic fork and glares at the dumplings on the center table as though they have committed the gravest crime on earth. He takes one and immediately swallows it whole.

"That's great. Dr. Haruno is hardworking and diligent. She deserves to have a great partner who can provide for her," Shikamaru adds.

Sasuke directs his glare at him. "Why would she need someone to provide for her? She's plenty capable of doing that herself."

He takes another dumpling and shoves it in his mouth. And another. And another.

"I saw them the other day as well. They look good together. I hope Sakura-chan finally gets the happiness she deserves," Naruto says while subtly side eyeing Sasuke.

Sasuke thinks they're all talking nonsense. "Does Sakura have to be in a relationship with a rich dude to be happy? Get woke, dobe."

"Our residents are already in that age where they are ready for a serious relationship. I'm only saying it's good she's already found her match," Naruto says with a teasing glint in his eyes.

He eats another dumpling. Why are they even gossipping about a junior resident's personal life, anyway? He takes another bite, oblivious of the smirk already forming on Naruto's lips.

Kiba stands up to wash his hands by the sink, still continuing to spout his nonsense. "True. But if I were her, I'd just quit working here and marry the rich guy right away, have wondeful CEO children, and just burn through all that money." 

Kiba comes back to the coffee table and is about to sit when Sasuke kicks the chair further away from him causing him to fall on the floor. "Ow, hey! What was that for?" Kiba scowls at Sasuke. 

"Hn." Sasuke ignores him and proceeds to eat the last of the dumplings.

"Hey, you bastard! You ate all the dumplings!" Naruto exclaims, a look of betrayal on his face. "After all that crap about fairness that you said earlier?"

"I'm the one who bought it. I'm gonna eat as much as I want." He stands up and heads to the door of his office. "You're all annoying," he mutters before getting out.

"Why is he grumpy all of a sudden?" Kiba asks.

Naruto laughs, knowing exactly why. "When is he not grumpy?"

* * *

Current Day

Sakura is at the nurse's station having a snack when her phone suddenly vibrates in her pocket.

From: Undesirable No. 1

I'm at the hospital lobby.

Sakura smiles to herself, pocketing her phone a he heads to the lobby. 

Her smile widens when she spots him standing in the middle of the lobby, holding another bouquet of white lilies, one hand in his pocket as he looks around the hospital. He looks definitely out of place wearing his crisp black suit, shiny shoes, and branded watch. 

A few patients and nurses are looking at him, probably mystified by his striking appearance, causing Sakura to chuckle. He finally sees her and waves a hand at her.

"Must you show off like that all the time?" she asks as she takes the flowers he hands to her.

"I do not show off. It's not my fault I'm charismatic."

Sakura ignores his reply and scowls at him instead. "You are aware that I do have a real job and not just your messenger, right?" she asks Sai. "You should hand this to Ino yourself if you want to be forgiven."

He crosses his arms in his chest. "Have you forgotten about that musical I took you to the other night? Being my henchman is a small price to pay for the expensive tickets I spent on that."

"Ugh, you cheapskate. You suck. I hope Ino doesn't forgive you anytime soon. Also I don't think handing flowers via a messenger is what you call groveling."

Sai furrows his brows in confusion. "But I read in this book of wooing your significant other that flowers and chocolates are the best way."

Sakura sighs. "Look–"

"Dr. Haruno."

Sakura immediately freezes in place upon hearing his voice, feeling dread in the pits of her stomach as though she's just been caught committing a crime.

She turns her head to see Dr. Uchiha heaidng toward her, a cup of coffee in his hand. He nods at Sai before turning to Sakura again. "I already checked the report you submitted yesterday. You can get it in my office whenever you can."

Without waiting for her to reply, Dr. Uchiha starts to walk away, deliberately pushing past between her and Sai even though the hall is wide enough to walk through.

"Hm," Sai muses as soon as Sasuke is out of earshot.

"What?" Sakura asks him sharply, already in the defensive.

"It seems we are both experiencing problems in our dating lives, cousin."

She gapes at him and widens her eyes. "Dating? What? I'm not–"

"Ah. Looks like I am needed in the company already." Sai cuts her off and puts the phone in his ears, pretending to call someone even though Sakura can see that he is holding the phone upside down.

* * *

Sakura clears her throat as she stops in front of Dr. Uchiha's office. She musters a smile and practices her greeting to Dr. Uchiha. "Dr. Uchiha, I'm here."

She shivers. "Sounds too dramatic." She clears her throat once again. "Hi, Dr. Uchiha!" she says in a cheerful voice then frowns. "I sound like an emcee at a kid's birthday party." She smiles at the door again and rests her knuckles against it. "Dr-Ack! What the heck!"

The door suddenly opens to reveal Sasuke frowning at her. Sakura places her hand in her chest in shock and steps backward. "Dr. Uchiha, I'm here to get that report," she says in a false tone.

Sasuke nods and gestures for her to come in. She then proceeds to sit by the coffee table as she waits for him to find her file in his messy table.

An awkward silence settles between them for a few moments before Sasuke decides to break it. He clears his throat as he skims through the documents in his hands, determined not to look at her. "Dr. Hatake is not coming in tomorrow, so you can just assist-"

"Are you mad at me?"

The words are out of her mouth before she could stop them, as though her lips have a brain of their own and decided to humiliate herself once again.

Sasuke stops to look at her and blinks twice, looking wrong footed.

Suddenly acquiring courage she didn't have before, Sakura decides to push through thinking it's better to get to the bottom of the issue and fix whatever mistake she may have made.

"You keep assigning me to other professors, you don't eat lunch with me and Dr. Uzumaki anymore," she points out. "You stopped giving me coffee."

"I'm not–"

"And you don't look at my face anymore whenever we talk," Sakura adds, sounding more and more upset by the second. 

She knows she may sound petulant and like a clingy girlfriend to him but aren't they friends? Maybe the friendship is only one-sided but she doesn't think she deserves a cold shoulder from him when she doesn't even know what she did wrong.

"Is it because I ate all your choco pie when we were having that meeting with Dr. Hatake?" she asks.

Sasuke, standing stock still by his desk, suddenly chuckles and looks at her incredulously. 

Sakura pouts. "Because if that's the reason, it's not entirely my fault. You're the one who gave me all the snacks in your tray."

"No, it's not. I'm not mad at all. I just- I don't want to make you uncomfortable by acting too familiar with you," Sasuke admits. "I don't want to go out of bounds, is all."

Sakura stares at him for a long while before scoffing. Did she just spent the last few days feeling guilty over nothing at all?

"Dr. Uchiha, I promise you that if you have in anyway made me uncomfortable, you would know about it because I'd tell you right away." She crosses her arms and scowls at him. "And you've never done anything inappropriate that would warrant me to report you to HR."

He sighs. "Fine."

She smiles wildly and steps closer to him, offering her hand. She bites her lower lip and shyly looks at him. "Friends?" she asks hopefully.

Sasuke looks at her face then to her outstretched hand. He swallows and accepts her hand, feeling that tickling sensation in his stomach once again. "Friends."

Sakura claps her hands together happily. "Okay. Now that we're okay again, do you want to have dinner with me? Shizune-san says the cafeteria is serving beef tonight."

Sasuke shrugs, something still bothering him. "Won't your boyfriend get mad that you're having dinner with some other guy?" he asks before he can stop himself, trying to sound as nonchalant as he can.

Sakura furrows her brows in confusion. "Boyfriend? What boyfriend?"

Sasuke rubs the back of his neck, feeling awkward all of a sudden. "The man you met with earlier. Naruto told me to stop bothering you because your boyfriend might get it all wrong."

Finally connecting the dots, her confused face suddenly forms into a scowl upon remembering what Naruto told her the other day. Sakura suddenly wants to barge into the OB-GYN department and punch a certain blond doctor. 

So this is the plan he told her about? He fed Sasuke some lies and assumed he will get jealous? Sakura thinks his plan backfired instead of achieving the desired results. Sasuke wouldn't get jealous because of fake boyfriend. 

He would have to have some feelings for her to get jealous and Sakura knows that's far from the case. Sasuke only thinks of her as a friend and a colleague, and even though it stings a little, Sakura is completely fine with that.

She fakes a cough. "Oh. That was Sai. Dr. Yamanaka's boyfriend. And my cousin. Don't believe Dr. Uzumaki's nonsense. I don't even have time to shower much less date someone," she says, laughing.

At that, Sasuke finally relaxes his posture. He lowers his face to hide the smile on his lips and pretends to be focused on checking the papers in his hand. 

"Oh. That's great," he says in a relieved tone causing Sakura to raise an eyebrow at him. 

"It's great that I don't have a dating life?" Sakura frowns.

"I mean- what you said earlier about the cafeteria serving beef. That's–that's great." Sasuke inwardly cringes at himself for saying some awkward nonsense once again.

Sakura only stares at him for a few moments before speaking again. She purses her lips. "Next time, ask me first before getting cold all of a sudden, okay?"

Sasuke crosses his arms, raising an eyebrow at her. "What is this? You're lecturing me now?"

"Yes. You seem to need my advice when it comes to handling relationships, Dr. Uchiha."

He scoffs. "I don't think I should get advice from the person who insulted her boss on her first day here."

Sakura suddenly looks innocently at him. "Who? Me?"

Sasuke laughs and hands her the report he's been looking for before gesturing to the door. "You must be hungry, Dr. Haruno, to be spouting some nonsense at this hour. Let's go." He then grabs his coat before heading out with Sakura happily following behind him.

* * *

The next morning, Sakura is surprised to see a cup of coffee sitting on her desk with a note on it:

_Dr. Haruno, kindly assist me for the skull base tumor surgery tomorrow._

_\- Dr. U._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all the medical jargon in this chapter is from hospital playlist ep2

**Author's Note:**

> haven't written in a while, hope ur all well and safe during these trying times!


End file.
